Is your school auction crowd obnoxiously loud? Though any auction crowd has the potential for being deafening, school auctions tend to be louder than nonprofit galas. School auctions are filled with parents who have established relationships with others through their child's sports, classes, and activities. These parents have many friends and acquaintances to greet. Add alcohol to the mix, and most guest's personal volume increases. Compare this to a nonprofit gala, where the guests ... Read On >
Benefit Auctions Blog
Eleven options for fundraising auction venues
A client called last week. Her preferred benefit auction venue is booked, and she's on the hunt for a new space that will hold 200-250 guests. "Can you point me in a few directions?" she asked. Here in the Washington, D.C. area I have a list of interesting venues to meet her guest count. But as this blog is read by auction planners from across the globe, I'm going to be more general. Changing your venue is an easy way to give a facelift to your benefit auction and it comes with the ... Read On >
This benefit auction blog is temporarily closing
Dear Readers, For July - September, this blog will go silent as my team works to build a new website and implement other behind-the-scenes changes. If you're seeking benefit auction help, search through the 550 blog posts dating back to 2009. There's plenty of content to explore and thousands of ideas to incorporate into your next auction fundraiser. (As a side, if you subscribe to Benefit Auction Ideas, that publication will still arrive on schedule. The next issue is July 5.) We'll ... Read On >
[Video] Should you promote the benefit auctioneer?
Yesterday I received this question from a client. Again this year, we are thinking about putting a Smartphone Auction card in our invite and on the back, adding information about two or three exciting live auction items with details about our auctioneer (you), including maybe your photo. We are trying to inform our guests that we have a new auctioneer. Here is what we were thinking we could say: "We’re putting together an exciting array of auction prizes, including X, Y, Z, and more! ... Read On >
[VIDEO] When to use a theater-style layout for your fundraising auction
When time allows during the spring auction season, I create highlight videos from some of my fundraising auctions. These videos are posted on the Red Apple Auctions Facebook page but you'll only see those if you 1) use Facebook, and 2) have "liked" the Red Apple Auctions Facebook page. As not all readers are Facebookers, I thought it might be a good idea to share these on the blog too. It allows all auction planners to get ideas from some of the top notch events my clients produce. The ... Read On >